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Is your bookcase getting the better of you? Do you spend hours trying to find a beloved work because there is no organization to your shelves? Perhaps your spouse has forbidden you from buying any more books, because there is not room to store them. If you are in this situation, here are some tips you can use to organize your bookcase and make room for more beloved books.

Start with a Purge

The first step towards organizing your bookshelf is getting rid of the things on it that you do not really want or need. The truth is that bookshelves are magnets for clutter, and that clutter is only going to be worse if there are items on there that you do not need.

Start by deciding what types of books you want to keep. Perhaps you would like to have a nice collection of biographies, or maybe your passion is for classical literature. If you decide about certain genres before you begin purging, it will be easier to get rid of unneeded books.

If you have not thought about a book or looked at in a year or more, it may be a good candidate for the toss box. Of course, there are those classics that should be in every home library, but realistically, you do not need to keep it just because it is a book. That manual for the car you had in 1977, after all, has no use for you today.

The books you are going to throw out need to go straight into a box or storage tote. This way you can easily carry them to the Goodwill store or your favorite used bookstore. By donating them or selling them, you can get cash or a tax write-off, giving you added motivation to remove unnecessary items from your home library.

How to Organize the Books You Keep

Once you have narrowed down your library, you are ready to reorganize it. Having your books in a nice order not only makes it easier to find what you need, but it also makes the bookcase look much nicer.

Start by dividing the books into categories. You might have a section for cookbooks, another section for children’s books, and another section for novels.

There is no hard and fast rule about how to organize your books. Use a system that makes sense to you, and stick with it. Keep in mind that experts recommend that you organize your bookcase by the use of the books. This makes it easier to find what you need quickly.

However, if the bookcase is a decorative bookcase, you may wish to organize the books based on how they look.

For instance, antique books may be shelved in one spot, and soft cover books in another. Consider grouping them by binding type or by color if you are organizing a decorative bookcase.

If your bookcase contains primarily books you read for pleasure, consider organizing it by books you have read and books you have not read. This will make it simpler to grab a book when you are ready to read.

Most homes have more than one bookshelf. If this is the case for you, consider putting various genres in different rooms. For instance, the kitchen bookcase is the home of the cookbooks, and the bookcase in the bedroom would be a nice place to store your fiction reading material. Decorative books belong on display in the living room, while children’s literature should be in the children’s rooms or playroom. This will make it much easier to find the items you want to read, because they will be in the room where you will likely be using them.

What to Do with Magazines

Magazines are always problematic when organizing a bookcase. They do not stand up well and almost always look cluttered. Consider investing in a few magazine holders. Then, organize them by title or month. You may want to put out the magazines for a particular month, and then replace them with the next month’s issues when the month is over.

For example, when Christmas rolls around, you can stock your magazine holder with your December magazines, both past and present issues. This makes it more relevant to the people who might be reading the magazines, and will make it easier for you to find that great Christmas recipe or craft idea that you once saw.

Arranging the Books on the Shelf

Now that you have gotten rid books you are not attached to and grouped your books and magazines in whatever way makes the most sense in your life, you are ready to put them back on the shelf. Do not just throw them up there. You need to carefully arrange them so that they look nice and can be kept neat and tidy even when you remove one to read.

Decorators rarely place all books on the bookshelf vertically. This ends up looking like a big mess because of all of the colors that are contained in a typical home library. Instead, place the majority of your books vertically, but stack some horizontally.

This gives you a way to deal with the oversized books that are likely in your library, and makes the bookcase look more interesting.

Pull all of the books forward so that the spine is even with the edge of the shelf. This keeps the bookcase from looking too cluttered and ensures that you do not lose smaller books towards the back of the bookcase.

If you have room, put something that is not a book on the bookcase to add interest. For instance, you could place a photograph in a decorative frame next to a stack of books. A decorative bowl or vase would look nice atop a stack of books that is placed horizontal on the shelf. View your bookcase as a decorative item in your home, rather than a piece of storage furniture. With these tips, your bookcase can be as inviting as it is practical.

This article was written on behalf of MyBookMarket, a popular online books for sale website.

An armoire is one of the most versatile pieces of furniture that can be added to home, which will help you develop more personal storage space. By adding an armoire to your home will help provide hanging space or storage shelves for your guest room or any room within your home for that matter.

Keep a robe, towels, extra pillows, and slippers for your guest’s use in a convenient armoire. Due to all the shelving space or drawers in an armoire, they can be become a great addition to any child’s room. Clothing can hang on a pole or be folded neatly on the shelves. You can store their socks and undies in a plastic or wooden box, which can be easily lifted out.

Regardless of where you set up your home office, an armoire can be outfitted to hold a computer, printer, and fax machine. If you add shelves, then you can store your papers, books, in-and-out trays, and other supplies. To get to work, all you need to do is open the doors, but when you are finished all you have to do is close the doors and your things will remain private.

A basket on a shelf in an armoire will keep the things handy but out of sight. There is no better way to get that pile of toys out of sight than in an armoire. You can keep things that the child can reach himself at a lower level and things you want out of reach on higher shelves, then by closing its doors the room will look spotless. Older children always have so many supplies for doing homework, but if you were to install shelves for their books, notebooks, papers, and reference books, then they would have much more room. You can also keep their pens and pencils together in boxes on the shelves.

If your kitchen is in short supply of cupboards, then an armoire can take the place of a pantry by storing all your cooking supplies that would otherwise go into cabinets. You may also want to include baking supplies, spices, cooking oils, coffee, tea, and baking mixes. Now they will be right at hand when you get the urge to be creative in the kitchen.

Shelves at eye level are the perfect place to store pots and pans, because they will be easy to see and get out when stored in an armoire. Kitchen dishes and glasses will be convenient when placed in a kitchen armoire. A bare wall in a dining room is the perfect place to add storage, and an armoire can be home to all your china, crystal, silver, seasonal tableware, and decorative pieces.

By adding extra shelves to an armoire, you will have lots of space to store napkins, table runners, and table cloths. They will stay neat and pressed and be ready when you need them. By labeling the shelves you will know just where to find what you are looking for. Place seasonal or special occasion items on the upper or lower shelves, saving the most easily accessible shelves for everyday items.

Store gift wrap like paper, tissue paper, and ribbons on shelves in an armoire, while bows, tags, and other package decorations can be neatly organized in boxes. Reserve several shelves or drawers for gifts that you buy ahead of the special occasion. An armoire is a perfect place to stash umbrellas, hats, scarves, and mittens right inside the door. You can also add hooks for hanging backpacks, small sports equipment, or umbrellas.

Label the shelves or drawers in an armoire for each child in the house. If there is nowhere else in the house to stash things, this is where they go, but let your children decide what goes there. You can keep your make-up sorted and organized on a shelf in an armoire. Include a mirror and install a plug for curling iron or hair dryer. When you are beautiful, close up the doors.

Victor Epand is an expert consultant for home goods, home supplies, home automation and security. Follow these links to find the best storage space, home supplies, and home automation and security.

Organizing your home or even a single room with in your home begins with the simple step of getting the appropriate supplies. These supplies are not hard to find, but making sure that you have and use them all will save you a lot of time and make your organizing project more efficient.

To begin, you need to purchase trash bags, which will be used for throwing away broken items or things that you no longer need, but that you are not going to donate to someone else. Also, you may want to use the trash bags to get rid of obvious trash such as paper scraps, empty bottles, or outdated items.

Collect boxes from local stores in your area, which will help aid you in organizing your home. These boxes are essential when organizing a home, because they will enable you to quickly sort like items. You will likely have many boxes when organizing your home, so you may want to collect enough boxes to include each category of the items that you wish to keep.

Start by preparing a label for a box that says, “donate,” which will be for items that you wish to donate to a charity or give away to a friend or a relative. The next label that needs to be made should say, “new home.” This box will be used for items that you need to move to another place within your home or garage to keep.

You may want to use a sticky note and a marker to clearly label the boxes that you will use to help you organize your home. These labels are essential for quickly sorting your items into the appropriate boxes. You may want to consider using zipper bags of a variety of sizes, which will assist you with sorting smaller items that you want to store. You can use a smaller sized zipper bag to help you temporarily contain small items such as buttons or coins, then you can use larger sized zipper bags to hold slightly larger items such as makeup brushes or even receipts.

Finally, you will want to get a tape measure so that you will be able to get the correct measurements of the spaces for your storage boxes before you go out and purchase storage containers for your sorted items. You will also need to measure exactly how much space you actually have. It can be frustrating, and a waste of money, to purchase a storage container for your items only to find that it will not fit in its intended space. This is why you will ant to save yourself time in the end and measure your spaces first.

Once you have obtained all the storage boxes, variety size of zipped lock storage bags, and boxes that you will, then you are ready to begin sorting through your things so that you will be able to make room in your home, plus your home will be a lot more organized once you are finished.

Victor Epand is an expert consultant for home goods, home supplies, home automation and security. Follow these links to find the best home goods, organization information, and home automation and security.

Your home can be immaculately clean and organized, but a lot of times it is the garage that has to suffer. It suffers because all of the items that are removed from the home to keep it nice and neat are usually stored in the garage. Then again, the garage simply becomes a catchall for tools, toys, and everything imaginable. Eventually, these things become a hazard, so it is good to get down to business and start organizing your garage.

Start sorting

The first step to organizing your garage is to sort through the items in it. You need to categorize everything that is in it. For example, you will have a pile for tools, one for toys, and another for sporting equipment. If you have stored any clothing in the garage, make sure you have a pile for that as well.

Once you have all of these items in piles, you need to take anything that shouldn’t leave the garage and place it in its proper place. That way you and anyone helping you know that those items stay.

Seasonal items

Once you have your piles, you now need to make new piles by sorting them out by season. This will help you to place your items into storage bins. For example, you find summer sporting equipment and winter sporting equipment. You can place each within their respectable storage space. The same goes for clothes, toys, and other seasonal items.

If you have to, you can install more storage space. This means building shelves, purchasing portable closets for tool storage, and purchasing storage bins that you can label. You can even build cabinets to make everything easier to find. If you have everything stored away, you are left with considerably more floor space so that you can move around in your garage.

Getting rid of the unwanted

Once you have organized all of the things that you want to keep, it is time to get rid of those things that you don’t want to keep. As for how you pull this off, there are several ways. You don’t have to drive your unwanted items off to a dump somewhere and you don’t have to overburden the garbage man.

First of all, you can have a yard sale to sell those things that are in decent condition. People love it when others sell their junk because they are quite likely to find a treasure. However, you will find those things that cannot be sold in a yard sale, but need to be disposed of. You can then sort the trash into items that are recyclable and not recyclable. The recyclables can be delivered or picked up by the local recycling center, whereas the items that cannot be recycled can be picked up by a junk removal service. Even if you can’t find something to do with the junk that the junk removal service can remove, they may be able to find someone who can refurbish the items and donate them to charity.

Better efficiency

When it is all said and done, you have a larger workspace that is more efficient. If you want to build things, you can do that. If you want to actually park a car in your garage, you can do that as well. Most importantly, you’ll feel a lot better about the space that you are occupying. Even if your garage turns into your catchall, it will be an organized catchall. That will make it easier to sort through things in the future and even find those items that you can actually use. This makes life a lot easier.

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Most people who live in cluttered homes also have cluttered lives. By de-cluttering your home, the turmoil in you life may also disappear.

The fact is 7 of 10 Americans live in cluttered homes. If this is the case for you, then you need to know how to de-clutter your home and your life you need to know why it’s cluttered in the first place.

In order to modify this you need to ask yourself a few questions.

Is “stuff” your typical way of life?
Are you always moving things around because everything is in the way?
Is your home surrounded by never ending stacks of paper you know you’ll never get to?
Do you have a number of unfinished projects lying about the house?
Are your closets stuffed beyond capacity with clothes and things you don’t need?
Are you always running late for everything because you’re so disorganized?

If one or more of these issues is a problem in your home then you live in a cluttered home. You probably spend a lot of time trying to remember where things are located. At the same time your brain is running amiss trying to multi-task. Truth is you can only do one thing at a time. So you need to make a personal resolution that de-cluttering your home is a top priority. By doing so you will be less stressed.

With all the chaos going on around the world, now is not the time to have your mind spinning about the location of your stuff. There are more important issues in current times. If anything else is troubling you besides the clutter, those issues will become monumental.

A great way to get started is to make signs for each category of things you want to organize. Have a friend with you so you don’t become frustrated. Just as you’ve seen before, those signs might be “keep”, “toss”, “trash”, and “donate.” Be aggressive and ask yourself, have I seen this, have I missed this, have I used this, have I worn this or even never liked this in the last 12 months. If so then it’s got to go.

When done, look at your donate pile. It’s a great feeling to donate these unwanted things to charity, especially in today’s world where lots of people have nothing. Another benefit is the great tax deduction. Since I de-cluttered my home I de-cluttered my life too. So can you.

Hi, my name is April. I’ve written this guide on how to de-clutter your home & your life because the two seem to go hand in hand. Please check out my website at www.savemoneysavetimenow.com

Anyone with closets knows that keeping them organized is difficult. What other reason would there be for the proliferation of closet companies that will professionally design your closets? If you are fortunate to have a walk-in closet in your master bedroom, you have even a bigger chore of deciding exactly how to maximize that space. A walk-in closet opens up a world of ideas and opportunites that you can’t do with regular sized closets.

Walk in closet design does not have to be done by a professional. You can come up with enough of your own ideas to make that closet work for you. First you need to think about how you want to use your walk in closet. Is it for two people or one? Do you want to have shelving, racks, or drawers in your closet? Do you want a special place for your shoes in your closet. Do you need to install special lighting and mirrors in the closet? Questions like these need to be answered right from the start of your closed redesign.

Special features you can get for your walk in closet include things like fancy doors that have frosted or clear glass and other decorations. You can install shelves which are easily adjustable so that you can store things of different sizes on them. Shoe shelves are very popular and they can be found in all sorts of models designed to hold a variety of shoes. Many people add a chest of drawers to their walk in closets that are big enough to accommodate them and this adds valuable storage space.

Most of these ideas can be done yourself and you can get lots of great ideas by just looking a pictures of different closets in magazines and on the Internet. If you can find exactly what you want somewhere, make sure to take a picture of it or rip it out of the magazine. You should be able to find someone to build it for you if you can’t yourself.

If you feel your walk in closet needs a complete makeover and it is too much for you to attempt alone, there are lots of companies that will come in and professionally redesign your closets. They will charge you signifacantly more than you could do it yourself though, but the upside is that it will look fantastic. Either way, updating and modernizing your walk in closet is something that will give you satisfaction for years to come.

For more great walk-in closet ideas, please visit my site Closet Design Ideas. You will also find some tips on walk in closet lighting.

The ancient Chinese art of energy balancing, feng shui, has attracted the modern Western mind by its variety of applications for life improvement.

Even if it could seem basic, feng shui is pretty difficult to define as it involves complex knowledge of the elements, the environment, the energetic structure of the body as well as of the principles governing the functions of the universe.

Feng means wind and shui is water in Chinese; these two elements, gentle wind and clear water are symbols of fulfillment in terms of health, wealth and fortune.

People speak of “good feng shui” and “bad feng shui” depending on the way the energies are respected and put to work for you.

The basis for feng shui is the complete understanding of nature and the taoist vision, both embracing the idea that everything is full of the life energy or light, called “chi” or “qui” (in Chinese) or “ki” (in Japanese).

The basic factors that could influence a feng shui analysis of a location, person or situation include the five elements and the yin and yang rule. Feng shui is created on the ancient symbols present in I Ching, the ancient Chinese oracle.

These symbols are used in the octagonal grid, the Ba-Gua, that helps you understand or determine the various relations between the feng shui locations in the home or office and the various parts of your life.

Feng shui is common to several different schools, and it involves several levels of learning and understanding, depending on the complexity of the information you have access to and actually get to internalize.

The cures offered by feng shui for life improvement vary from the use of fountains, aquariums and crystals to the energy improvement by means of clocks, colors and mirrors.

Light and colors make an important combination by the power they can bring to a certain location. Most places characterized by “bad feng shui” suffer from lack of light and color.

The interaction of the universal elements is another crucial aspect of feng shui; wood, fire, water, earth and metal can create productive or destructive circles depending on the preponderance they have in one’s space.

Each of the elements has a corresponding color; it is basic feng shui knowledge to know how to complement colors and balance an environment.

The location of the elements in a space is not randomly done as it has to be determined by the octagonal grid, the Ba-Gua.

To learn more about how Feng Shui can improve all aspects of your life including your health, wealth and happiness visit http://www.fantasticfengshui.com

Clutter costs businesses hundreds of millions of dollars every year. This is because it takes longer to pull documents, prepare reports and also find essential paperwork. This is because clutter is a sign of disorganization and many offices and other organizations are looking for storage systems that work with the type of clutter that they tend to accumulate.

Clutter is not exclusive to offices but homes are also prone to having CDs, CD cases, magazines, newspapers, toys, clothes, shoes, junk food wrappers, candy wrappers, books and the likes, clogging the entire house to where it becomes a huge problem simply moving around or even finding something.

Clutter can also contribute to dirty and unhygienic environments which can harbor bacteria and even rats in extreme cases. For many offices, determining where to store the items is crucial. Many are going paperless but this can be expensive especially because it means that you have to upgrade all your computer equipment. A cheaper way is to buy storage cubes. These can come in plastic or wood but the mot popular tend to be plastic.

Storage cubes can be ideal for a home and office environments. Businesses as we mentioned earlier lose hundreds of millions of dollars in lost productivity simply because they are disorganized. Too much paperwork and other clutter create a work environment where it is slow to get things done. This also causes businesses to lose valuable time and effort in completing simple tasks which could have been completed much faster if there was better organization. Items that do not fit into a particular storage category and cannot be filed into filing cabinets can be easily stored in cubes and solve the issue of clutter.

When it comes to homes, clutter is also a major concern and can actually lead to unhygienic conditions not to mention festering a general environment of disorganization. These can be breeding grounds for germs and other viruses that can harbor dirt and bacteria. The reason why we see clutter is because most people do not have a system of storing their unused items ranging from CDs, books, magazines, and other items in the homes.

The problem is aggravated by having teenage children who sometimes do not have a sense of being tidy. Most people’s homes are cluttered because they do not have a proper system of storage where items that do not necessarily fit into any category can be easily put away. Some people use their garages as their storage grounds. This can be disastrous especially if this is the same place where cars are parked at night. In some garage, there are even cars that are completely inoperable. Cubes for storage can resolve this issue easily.

Storage cubes can easily be purchased at the major department stores such as Wal-mart, K-Mart, Target and other specialty stores such as Michaels. The Internet also provides as excellent place for finding great bargains on storage cubes of all manner.

Theodore provides information about storage cubes and recommends best storage cubes when buying.

A medicine cabinet may not seem like the focal point of a bathroom, but this one item can change the entire the look and feel of the room. The medicine cabinet is usually the only fixture positioned at eye level in this small room, meaning that it is normally the first place our eye goes in the room.

Old metal styles of medicine cabinets that are tacked on the wall of many American bathrooms make the room appear small and dated not to mention difficult to use. With a few hints and tips, you can replace it with one of the many fashionable wood medicine cabinets that look great and keep your bathroom organized.

Recessed Or Wall Mounted?

One of the first decisions you will encounter is whether to install recessed wood medicine cabinets or one that is mounted onto the wall. Generally, styles that attach onto the wall are great for larger bathrooms that have a wider vanity or corner. It will not get in the way of the sink or toilet and give you an extra ledge to store decorative items or extra supplies.

A recessed system can be used almost anywhere and is particularly handy in small bathrooms where space is in short supply. When purchasing these, you want to watch the sizing carefully. They need to fit between the studs, which are standard, but you will want to keep an eye on the height and depth. In a 2×4 wall, for example, recessed styles get fairly narrow making it difficult for wider bottles to fit on the shelves.

A hybrid between the two is a little more difficult to find, however it is a far better option for 2×4 walls. This system sits between the studs, but it sits out from the wall by a couple of inches. You get the needed storage space of a wall mount with the space saving benefits of an in-the-wall medicine cabinet.

If you are having difficulty finding a unit big enough, look outside the box! Other units may be billed as Spice Cabinets, Curio Cabinets, Wall Niches or regular in-wall cabinets, but they can actually function as any type of cabinet.

So don’t let the title fool you. For instance, an on-the-wall spice cabinet can range in size from 18-72″ and some can even be found in single and double versions. This gives you the flexibility to choose how large you want the cabinet to be.

And many on-the-wall cabinets are shallow enough that they could even be mounted behind a door for added storage! As an added benefit, many wall spice racks are modular making them inexpensive to ship.

Matching Bathroom Decor

These storage systems come in a variety of shapes, colors, and details to fit easily into any decor. Mirrored styles are great for small bathrooms because it eliminates the need for a separate mirror and makes the room look larger. These systems come in more shapes than just square or rectangular.

Styles with an arched top add a touch of elegance and visual interest to the space. Decorative frames and accents such as etching are great when it comes to adding to the decor. If you would like to match the existing finishes in your home, order an unfinished system and coat it with leftover paint from the trim in the bathroom or give it a custom finish all your own.

Wood medicine cabinets add a luxurious feel to any style of bathroom. Decide which style of medicine cabinet will give you the space you need and match it to the decor in the room for a custom look that rivals the fanciest of hotels.

Author is a freelance copywriter. For more information on wood medicine cabinets or medicine cabinets, visit http://www.WGWoodProducts.com/.

Space saving organizational systems such as a wall magazine rack or a recessed toilet paper holder for the bathroom makes everything look neater and easier to keep clean. That isn’t the only room in the house that can benefit from these systems.

A cabinet spice rack can free up an incredible amount of space in the kitchen. For the bedroom, a jewelry cabinet may be just what you need to tame your favorite items. Many times, it is simply a matter of coming up with the right idea for the room.

Bathrooms

For being one of the smallest rooms in the house, this area has to hold a lot of stuff. Recessed medicine cabinets are a great start. If you would like something unique, consider a recessed toilet paper holder with a wall magazine rack built in. You’ve even seen some of these multipurpose type units in commercial grade stainless steel in public bathrooms. But they are also available in wood for the home!

These multifunctional units come in a variety of configurations to suit your needs. A recessed toilet paper holder might have a trash bin and paper holder with a separate wall magazine rack, or they can have tissue dispensers, paper, garbage, magazines, and a medicine cabinet all in one unit.

Even better, many of these types of units are “modular” in that you could customize them to choose the different “modules” you want your unit to have and the order they appear in the unit!

These come in almost any finish or you can order them unfinished and complete the system yourself. To make them really stand out, add a glass or mirrored door to the system or simply frame it in with intricate molding. A recessed toilet paper holder or wall magazine rack can have an arched top to give the lines in your bathroom some variety.

Bedrooms

Small bedrooms pose a particular challenge. In many instances, there isn’t enough room to include dressers or stand alone jewelry cabinet for small items. An in-the-wall system may be just what you are looking for. On the outside, these are very similar to a recessed medicine cabinet often with a mirror face and artistic wood frames.

Instead of wide shelves, the inside of a jewelry cabinet is full of bars, hooks, and small shelves designed specifically for holding these delicate items without tangling together. They can even have a hidden hinge and locking mechanism to make them safe and secure without harming the visual appeal of the piece.

For pierced earrings, stretch a pretty piece of cloth across an inexpensive embroidery hoop. Then, push the earrings through the material, put the backing on the other side, and hang it up next to the jewelry cabinet.

Kitchens

The spices and small bottles are the first thing to become horribly unorganized. It is rare to have enough space for everything causing them to start spreading to other cupboards or the countertop. A cabinet spice rack can help you deal with this problem. A cabinet spice rack comes in almost any size and is available in either a single or dual version.

They can hang on the wall or you can purchase a recessed cabinet spice rack to save space. Add a door and even a mirror on the front, or you can leave them open to show off your culinary prowess.

A wall magazine rack, cabinet spice rack, jewelry cabinet, and a recessed toilet paper holder are just a few of the space saving storage ideas you can incorporate into your home. They are easy to install. The lower stress level and beauty they add to each room will make you wonder how you ever lived without them.

Author is a freelance copywriter. For more information on wall magazine racks, cabinet spice racks or jewelry cabinets, visit http://www.WGWoodProducts.com/.